Story+1985-07-04+London,+England

´´Here´s a song about, uh....traveling down through Texas, throughout the Southwest.... there´s a lot of people came down from Detroit....up north, looking for work in the oil fields ....and in the refineries....and when the oil prices dropped....they were shutting ´em down, people come down there with their whole families and everything that they had´d find no work, ended up sleeping out on the highway in a tent or in their cars....this is called ´Seeds´ ...”
 * 04.07.85 London, England, intro to ´Seeds´**

´´Oh....nice to be back in London, good to see everybody....yeah, it´s been a little while (chuckles)....this song, this is uh....when I was a kid, my old man used to....sit in the kitchen every night....and he´d turn out all the lights downstairs of the house and he´d get mad if you turned any of ´em on or anything....and my mother used to sit in the frontroom with just the television on....with thos pink curlers in her hair (chuckles) the kind the ladies used to wear ....and pink slippers with flowers on the toes (chuckles)....but uh, my old man used to lock up the frontdoor so that me and my sister would have to come in around the side....and I remember I´d come up the driveway, if I was late and I´d tuck my hair down inside my collar because,. man, I had a long hair and forget it, he hated it, you know (chuckles) he didn´t like it, no, and I´d stand there....I´d get my nerve up and I´d walk up on the porch and I´d walk through the screendoor and he wouldn´t say nothing, I´d walk into the livingroom and say goodnight to my mom....she wouldn´t say nothing and just as I was about to hit that bottom step, I´d hear from the kitchen....´Bruuce´, he´d be calling me to come back....he´d always wait till I almost made it and I´d come back and I´d sit down and.....and we could never talk about anything, you know, he was mad all the time, I guess it wasn´t....until a lot later that I understood about what he was mad about....but uh, anyway if I was too late, sometimes I´d sleep out on a friend of mine´s porch, I had an old sleeping bag.....or I´d sleep in somebody´s car....and I´d let him sleep it off overnight....and now when I go home, them places sometimes are more like....like they belong to me more than my own house did at that time ....but anyway this is, uh....this is ´cause everybody needs some place to go on those nights when they can´t go home.....”
 * 04.07.85 London, England, intro to ´The River´**

´´Now I gotta sit down a minute....too much excitement.....I´m getting too old.....yeah, bring it down, boys, that´s too loud (chuckles) oh, I´m 35 now, man, all this jumping around tires you out and stuff, oh, now Roy, he turned 36 the day before yesterday....he´s gone, it´s too late, he´s over the hill....I´m just 35, I´ve got a little time left....I can go out and find out about life still....well, this is a song about growing old....gonna happen to everybody, you might as well go with it (chuckles) instead of going against it....yeah (chuckles) but like....like I remember sometimes you go out on a Friday night....there´s always somebody who comes up to you in a bar and they always go like ´Oh, remember me ?´ and you look at ´em and you kind of remember ´em but....´Remember me, like, high school ? yeah, we went to high school together...yeah, remember the guy, the guy in study hall, the guy that dumped the pizza pie on your shirt ? yeah, that´s me, that´s me´ ´Oh, yeah, yeah, how you doing ?´....but everybody´s always telling you what a great time you had in high school and stuff...like they got all that nostalgia stuff for the 50´s and ´American Graffiti´ and all that stuff but like I remember high school, man, high school was the worst, man, I hated high school....couldn´t stand it....man, I was bad at my studies....I couldn´t do no sports....I didn´t know how to, uh, uh, uh, you know, in high school I was only interested in two things ....now, one was the guitar....and the other one was.....amore, amore (chuckles)....now, of those two, the guitar´s the only one I really became good at....that´s why the shows are so long ´cause the other thing happens so fast....yeah, but that´s alright....I´m practising, I´m still practising, practising ....see, I´m married now so I get in a lot of practise (chuckles)....oh, hey man.....in the end it ain´t nothing but glory days....”
 * 04.07.85 London, England, intro to ´Glory Days´**

´´Oh, this is for, uh, Bono and the guys....”
 * 04.07.85 London, England, intro to ´The Promised Land´**

´´Oh, thanks....I guess, uh, this is a song about....when I was about 17....I remember thinking I couldn´t wait till I got out and traveled....till I got away, I grew up in this small town, it was real narrowminded....and uh, I was lucky, I was 19, I started to get out on the road and....and I was sure I´d never miss, miss the town I grew up in and I wouldn´t miss my old friends.....I wouldn´t miss my folks....all I remember....I guess I was angry about everything that had happened to me there....but uh, for a long time I went out and I traveled and I didn´t miss it, didn´t miss it much at all....(?) I´ve been lucky that I´ve always had most of my best friends traveling right with me (chuckles) so....yeah, but, uh....I started going home and I´d get in my car and I´d start driving down the old streets I grew up on and I´d drive past all the houses that I grew up in and I´d always wonder who lived in there now, if they had kids....and uh, I guess I got to realising that the place that you´re born and raised in always stays in your blood, that no matter what you become or where you go, it never ever leaves you....and that, uh....and that you belong someplace....and I guess the hardest thing about belonging someplace means you´ve got some responsobility to that place that you belong....and uh, sometimes that´s hard to live up to, I think, when I look back at my hometown, there was so many things where....there´s so many things that I´m ashamed of and so many things, I guess, there´s things I´m proud of....I guess you gotta live with the two of them....and I guess that´s what growing up´s about.....anyway, this is from my hometown to your hometown....”
 * 04.07.85 London, England, intro to ´My Hometown´**

´´I remember....my old man always sitting around thinking about things he wasn´t ever gonna, ever gonna have....till he´d get me thinking like that too....I remember thinking like him and acting like him....and I remember laying up in bed....staring at the ceiling at night.... feeling like if something didn´t happen....I felt like I was just gonna....like someday I was just gonna....remember I felt like I was just gonna....like I was just gonna.....”
 * 04.07.85 London, England, intro to ´I´m on Fire´**

´´Bring it down here....oh, now, this is a song....about the conflict....between worldly things and spiritual health.... between desires of the flesh....and spiritual ecstasy ....that´s right, can´t have ´em two things....now, where did this begin ?....well, it began in the beginning in a place called the Garden of Eden....now, the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia....but the latest theological studies have found out that its actual location was ten miles south of Jersey City, off the New Jersey Turnpike....but now understand, in the Garden of Eden, there were none of the accoutrements of modern living ....you didn´t have no TV....they didn´t have no little bed you could go home and crawl up in to at night....you couldn´t go out on to the corner and get some of those....them fish and chips ...couldn´t get not hamburgers if you wanted one....no, Sir !....in the Garden of Eden there was no sin, brother.... there was no sex....man lived in a state of innocence....now, when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I constantly live in....but just before the tour I decided to make a spiritual journey to the location of the Garden of Eden to find out the answer to some of these mysteries....why I feel this conflict, this temptation all the time.... so I went out there and the place was now occupied by Happy Dan´s Celebrity Used Car Lot ....I walked in, he looked at me, he said ´Son, you need a yellow convertible, a four-door DeVille with a Continental spare, wide chrome wheels, air-conditioning, automatic heat, fold-out bed in your backseat, eight-track tapedeck, TV and a phone so you can speak to your baby when you’re driving all alone’...I said ‘I’ll take two’...then I said ´But Dan, that´s not the reason why I came, I wanna know the answer to temptation´ and he said ´Well, son, that´s easy because right here on these ten beautiful commercially-zoned acres was the sweetest little paradise that man had ever seen, in the Garden of Eden there was many wonderous things : there was a Tree of Life, there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, there was a man, Adam, there was a woma, Eve and she looked so fine....and when Adam kissed her, it was the first time that a man had ever kissed a woman.....and when Adam touched her, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman...and then they went out into the green fields....that´s where the trouble started.....and they lay down....and when Adam...let´s just say it was the first time....but there was something else in the Garden of Eden on that day, old Satan came slithering up on his belly and somehow he turned their love into a sweet betrayal and sent them running down into the darkness below....but that´s alright because right here tonight on this backlot, for 99.95 and no money down, don´t worry, man, if you´ve got bad credit, it´s good here, I´ve got the keys to their getaway car and if you´ve got the nerve to ride....we´ve got the first....pink... Cadillac ...”
 * 04.07.85 London, England, intro to ´Pink Cadillac´**

´´Thanks....thanks....I´d like to, like to just....take a second and thank everyone for coming down to the show tonight in London, thank you very much.....and I´d also like to thank you for, for your continuing support of our band over the past ten years....when we haven´t gotten over here as often as we´d liked....I´d just like to say that we appreciate it, thank you very much....but uh, this is, I´d like, this next song, this is....this is my, I guess, one of my favorite Elvis Presley songs....and uh, oh, it was back in....1976, we were in the States on the ´Born to Run´-tour...and.we played in Memphis one night, we played in this little auditorium....it was down in the middle of the town....and, uh, we came home after the show and me and my guitar player Steve were sitting around....and we called a taxi cab to come and take us out to Elvis´ house....and so the cab driver came and he brought us out to Graceland....and I remember it was about 3.30 in the morning and I got out of the cab and I stood in front of those gates with the big guitar players on ´em....and me and Steve were standing there and I saw a light on in the second window so I figured that Elvis must be up reading or something, you know (chuckles) and I remember saying, I said ´Steve, I gotta try, man, I gotta do it´ and I jumped up over the wall and down on to the other side and I started running up the driveway as fast as I could...and uh, I don´t know what I was thinking about or what I was planning on saying but man, I ran right up to the frontdoor....and I was about to knock and a guard came out of the woods and asked me what I wanted and I said ´Well, is Elvis home ?´ ....and he said ´No, no, Elvis isn´t home tonight, he´s in Lake Tahoe´...and I said and I tried to tell him, I said ´Well, I´m a guitar player too and I got my own band and we played in town tonight and, uh....´....you know, told him that Elvis was my idol and I told him I had my picture on the cover of Time and Newsweek (chuckles) and uh (chuckles) I pulled out all the stops trying to (chuckles) but he looked at me like I was crazy, I know, I don´t think he believed me and he was nice, he just took me by the arm and brought me back and put me back out on to the street (chuckles)....but uh....I don´t know what I was doing, sometimes at night I look back, I think like ´How was I expecting to meet ?´ or what I was, ´cause when people come knocking on my door around 3 o´clock, I feel like, you know, beating them over the head with a stick or something (chuckles) but, but, uh, I never got to meet him.... and it wasn´t too much longer....that a friend, a friend of mine called me up and told me that he´d died....and I remember how it was hard for me to understand that somebody whose music was filled with so much life....who´d taken away so many people´s loneliness....and who gave so many people....a reason to live and a look into the promise of life, could´ve died so tragically....and it seemed like such a meaningless, meaningless death and he deserved a lot better, that´s for sure, you know....but uh....but it´s easy, you know, it´s easy to let the best of yourself slip away so what I´d like to, I´d like to do this for you tonight wishing you all the longest of life with the best of everything you can get your hands on, hold on....”
 * 04.07.85 London, England, intro to ´Can´t Help Falling in Love with You´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//